Saturday: Kovalainen enables Caterham to outpace its rivals
Heikki Kovalainen once again stood out as the best driver of the "new teams." The Finnish driver will start from 19th place tomorrow and could probably have done better without a DRS problem. Vitaly Petrov, on the other hand, struggled more but remains confident for the race.
Heikki Kovalainen – 19th and 19th:
« I am quite pleased with my last lap but I know there was more pace in the car. My first stint on mediums was good but in the second stint on softs, I had a DRS issue which meant I couldn’t really attack in the fast corners and that cost me some time. Despite that, I think we will be fine tomorrow. The balance seems better with the lower track temperatures we had during qualifying and it will probably be the same tomorrow for the race, so hopefully, I can get another good start and we’ll see how much pressure we can put on those ahead of us. »
Vitaly Petrov – 22nd and 21st:
Honestly, I’m a bit disappointed with my final position in qualifying today because I think the car could have been faster than that. We had a complicated third free practice session, and we tried several setups to find a good balance. When I went out in Q1 for my first stint, I didn’t feel like I could attack. It was better with the softs, and on my fastest lap, I was fine until turn 17, but a bit of traffic slightly held me up, enough to make me lose time. The positive point is that the car clearly seems better when the track temperature is lower, so I think it should be okay for tomorrow.
